SABINE PASS — A barge floating between Texas and Louisiana carries tons of rubble and the key to quality marine habitat at a potential fishing hotspot in the Gulf of Mexico.
Eight hundred eighty tons of concrete blocks and culverts await a ride to an artificial reef, High Island 20, where it will be swept off the deck to remain as a neighborhood for fish on the ocean floor.
And that’s just the first barge load. Approximately 3,750 tons of structure is headed for HI-20. The mass of debris will expand the habitat on the site, joining a sunken 120-foot barge and hundreds of concrete blocks on the bottom.
All of it will be ushered by a tugboat in the coming days to the 160-acre reef just a few miles away, where it will be used to create a habitat labyrinth for a myriad of marine species as part of a massive undertaking by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Coastal Conservation Association Texas and its Building Conservation Trust, along with a multitude of partners.
The artificial reef will create an ecosystem from the foundation and the benefits will float to the top.
“Because the majority of our substrate offshore is a mud bottom, building hard habitat there allows the encrusting and settlement of sea apples and invertebrates, prey items for fish,” said Brooke Shipley, chief scientist for TPWD’s artificial reef program.
“It creates a whole ecosystem. It’ll have smaller species of fish as well as larger fish.”
Pipes of various sizes will create a complicated maze for fish to maneuver. Huge concrete blocks littered with holes, used previously to test drill bits, will provide refuge for tiny fish and allow for a healthy balance of prey and predator species.
The expansion of HI-20 will attract a number of recreationally important species, including speckled trout, redfish and others. The reef might also lure some red snapper, and the site’s location in state waters will increase accessibility for anglers to that fishery. Red snapper season in federal waters is allocated a certain number of days with a two-fish bag and 16-inch minimum size limit. In Texas waters, the fishery is open year-round with a bag limit of four fish and a 15-inch minimum.
“These sites will create areas for recruitment of juvenile and young snapper, allow them to grow to that sub-adult level and eventually allow them to displace deeper into other areas around the coast,” Shipley said.
Texas has more than 90 artificial reefs, but most are located offshore. HI-20, a little less than nine miles from shore, is the easternmost of 12 nearshore reefs in state waters. Texas’ artificial reefs vary in size from 40 acres to a 1,650-acre site in the Rio Grande Valley.
Shipley said this particular area is high priority due to the rapid removal of oil platforms.
“There used to be hundreds of nearshore rigs out there. Over time, due to the Idle Iron policy of the federal government, all that structure’s been removed,” said CCA Texas assistant director John Blaha, referencing the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement requirement that oil companies dismantle platforms after wells are plugged to prevent negative ecosystem impacts from storm damage.
“Yes, those original structures were manmade, but over time they created a fantastic fishery, a fantastic ecosystem out there.”
The goal is that the work on HI-20 and other reefs like it will help replace this lost habitat while improving fishing.
“This is an effort to go in and supplement that habitat and bring that marine life back into these nearshore waters that give us easy access for our recreational fishermen,” Blaha said.
“Within a year, the fishing is going to be unbelievable up here. Because there’s absolutely no habitat for them right now,” said Rocky Chase, chairman of CCA Texas’ government affairs committee.
Chase envisions HI-20 as not just a lift to marine habitat, but also sees it as a boost to local communities in the Golden Triangle.
“It’s an economic development story as much as it is a fishing, habitat deal. It’ll attract people to come fish out of this area that haven’t been fishing down here because there’s not been much action,” Chase said.
It appears to be a win-win for everyone, including the project’s many partners. Sempra LNG, Chenier Energy, Golden Pass LNG, Motiva, Phillips 66, Shell Oil Company, Friends of Sabine Reef, Forterra Pipe and Precast, Bo-Mac Contractors, Eldridge Construction and the CCA Music City Chapter were instrumental in expanding HI-20.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a deployment with as many partner banners on it,” Shipley said.
“And I think that is really incredible and in large part due to just the community that really wants to see this reef site be successful.”
A solid chunk of the concrete pipes came from Forterra Pipe and Precast, a Texas-based company with many national locations. In all, 543 pieces with a total weight of 721.725 tons were donated from the company’s Conroe facility.
“We are all responsible for conservation and care of our environment,” said Liza Kirk, a technical resource engineer with Forterra Pipe and Precast.
“We provide products that help support our nation’s infrastructure. … But if we can also give back and conserve our products that may not be used and give back and develop our environment, that is truly what it means to be sustainable.”
The efforts with HI-20 is part of Forterra Pipe and Precast’s Reef of Opportunity program, which seeks ways to use the company’s products in an alternative way to help the environment in coastal areas across the country. This is the company's first involvement in a reef project in the Texas Gulf.
“Letting engineers see that there are other ways that our products can be used, helps them to be more environmentally conscious and think a little bit outside the box,” said Kirk, adding that Forterra’s products have also been used in firefighter training.
“We look for ways to give back and support our community, and also to raise awareness of what our products can be used for beyond the normal.”
As someone who grew up in Bay City, the project also gives Kirk a chance to reconnect with coastal communities.
“I’m super excited about it,” Kirk said. “I hope to be able to go fishing off of the reef at some point in the future.”
She’s not the only one.
For more information on Texas’ artificial reef program, check out the interactive map here or email artificialreefs@tpwd.texas.gov with additional questions.
April 21, 2021 at 01:14AM
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Expansion of artificial reef off Sabine Pass to help fish, anglers - Houston Chronicle
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